Looks like Saudi Arabia stopped another planned al-Qaeda attack. From the article:
The conservative Muslim kingdom also said it arrested 208 suspected Al-Qaeda militants over the past few months who were plotting assassinations and an attack on a logistical oil facility.
208 seems absurdly high, and given the KSAs rather dubious standards of justice, it’s unlikely there were actually 208 actual terrorists involved.
Nonetheless, the risk remains of a suicide attack on key pieces of infrastructure such as the Abqaiq stabilisation facility, or the refinery at Ras Tanura. I last wrote about this in April – to recap, approximately 6-7% of the worlds oil supply passes through Abqaiq, and any attack that managed to shut it down would cause an instant oil shock in the west.
That makes it a very juicy target for anybody who doesn’t like us. Back then, only a fairly ragtag bunch of terrorists were trying to damage it. Now we have another risk – if Iran is attacked it will fire missiles not at our ships (which they can easily destroy) but at Abqaiq or a part of the KSA pipeline network. A clever strategic strike for sure, because it doesn’t hurt soldiers …. it hurts the average US citizen, in the wallet.
The Saudi regime takes this threat seriously, and is building up a dedicated army to protect the petroleum infrastructure:
Saudi security officials say the force now has about 9,000 of its planned 35,000 troops. Still to come are a helicopter force crucial for pipeline defense and an air-defense system designed to thwart both suicide aircraft and missiles.
In other news, oil brings in the new year by passing $100/barrel. Cheers!
